Billionaire's estate tax 'windfall' a boon to Pennsylvania coffers

Guess how much billionaire's death means in Pennsylvania taxes. Guess again, higher …

HARRISBURG — A whopping $100 million tax payment to Pennsylvania by the estate of a conservative billionaire is a welcome addition to the state's strained finances, state officials said on Monday.

The inheritance tax payment made by the estate of Pittsburgh's Richard Mellon Scaife, whose fortune was made in banking, publishing and oil, dwarfed any previous inheritance payments, they said.

The $100 million "absolutely" will have a positive affect on the state's balance sheet, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Revenue said.

It was "something we didn't plan for," Elizabeth Brassell said, adding, "This was an anomaly, a windfall."

Scaife, who died on July 4 at age 82, was a key donor to conservative political causes.

He owned the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and bankrolled the American Spectator magazine, which accused President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton of fraud in the Whitewater real estate deal, investigated Clinton's alleged affairs and claimed the death of former White House counsel Vincent Foster was a murder committed in a Whitewater cover-up.

In 1998, the then-first lady was referring, in part, to Scaife when she complained in an interview that a "vast right-wing conspiracy" was trying to destroy her and her husband.

Scaife was a member of the wealthy Mellon family, whose fortune came from banking, oil and metals.

His estate is expected to pay another $30 million to $40 million in a final settlement that is due by April 2015.

Suffering from a lagging fiscal recovery, Pennsylvania has about $50 billion of unfunded long-term pension liabilities.